Aboard the ship, Severian meets Zak, a mysterious being, who begins small and soon develops human form and turns out to be the all-powerful Tzadkiel of Yesod.
It plays the role of collecting and balancing the different and opposing energies of Hod and Netzach, and also from Tiferet above it, storing and distributing it throughout the world.
On the Tree of Life diagram Yetzirah is associated with the Sephiroth Chesed, Geburah, Tiphareth, Netzach, Hod and Yesod.
Yesod |
He was a pupil of Asher ben Yehiel, at whose request (in 1310) he wrote the astronomical work Yesod Olam, the best contribution on that subject to Hebrew literature.
The rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Avrohom Shmuel Hirshovitz was a grandson of Rabbi Eliezer Gordon of Telz, and its mashgiach, Rabbi Moshe Midner was a grandson of the Yesod Ho'Avoda and a student of Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik; the Yeshiva thus combined the Lithuanian Talmudic style of the Misnagdic yeshivas with the Hasidic approach.